Wednesday, January 21, 2015

With a renewed enthusiasm for my favourite rules set (Great War Spearhead) I set out to finish painting the pile of 6mm figures I'd bought for the 2008 'The Guns of August' Marne refight at the National wargames convention in Christchurch New Zealand. There were almost enough figures to complete a third German 1914 infantry division, and with the judicious purchase of half a dozen infantry stands and a couple of MMGs the division was complete.

Now, I must have miscounted because I found that when it came to the last infantry regiment, I had a number of figures spare, so I increased the number of figures per stand from three (for stands using Irregular figures) and four (for stands using Heroics Ros figures) to five figures per stand.

I've not always felt that the visual impact of stands with just three figures really matched my own expectations of what battles should look like. Of course when viewed form the perspective of the entire battle it has always looked fine, but getting down the level of the individual stands, it just looked a little sparse.

Three of the infantry stands with five figures per stand.

The Corps command stand with an additional figure, and a vehicle, added to make the stand look busier.

An earlier iteration with just the three figures per stand.

So the twelfth and last German infantry regiment has just been completed with this larger number of figures, and I like it. This is the last regiment, and provides the completed third infantry division, more than enough for the games I generally play. This is also a huge milestone for that very reason. There are some Jager, and some Engineers, to complete, and a few more 77mm artillery gun stands, and that's it.

I recently bought the figures to complete two Russian divisions for the eastern front, but these were compiled using 1 x 3 figure Irregular base per stand. I am considering ordering that same volume again to put 6 figures (2 strips) on each base. Somehow that feels right for the Russian infantry.

Monday, January 19, 2015

Nick G and I hadn't got together for a game for a while, and he was keen to try out one of his Kings of War armies. Out came the Dwarfs, and out came Nick's delightful Orc/Goblin/Saurus combination.

The Orcs came at it eagerly, while the Dwarfs sat back hoping to cause more than a little damage with their shooting.

Dwarfs on the left, Orcs on the right.

This army included an Ironclad horde unit to strengthen the centre, with support from two other Ironclad regiments, a unit of Shieldbreakers, some Ironguard, and the inevitable cannon and organ gun.

On comes a Saurus unit supported by a Goblin Horde. Unfortunately Nick placed the Horde behind the Saurus, and so it was trapped for several moves.

Units can of course interpenetrate, but the action was closed very quickly, and the Horde was unable to make it through the congestion until the Saurus unit was routed.

Goblin cavalry on the Orc right, my left.

The cavalry were supported by a Krudger in a chariot, a weird magic guy and a half regiment of Ax.

Early shooting did manage to cause a waver in morale for a couple of Orc units.

Nick decided to attack in the centre with only two of his units, leaving the wavering units behind.

First contact .. Saurus against Ironclad.. bash bash bovver

Second contact against the Dwarf Horde.. so, did someone attack us just then? Say what?

The Steel behemoth ( I use a GW Gyrocopter .. because I have one.. to represent the behemoth. It's job was to hold the flank and support the Ironclad regiment which was the real flank guard.

And still they come .. more against the Dwarf left

A few casualties from the steel behemoth flame weapons against the goblin cavalry

The attack against the Dwarf horde doesn't go well, and the Ax regiment wavers

Tussles go on on the dwarf right

The Shieldbreakers are slugging it out with the Saurus, and then break them.. that crushing strength counts!!

The steel behemoth and the Krudger battle it out

The Battle Driller attacks another of those goblin magicy types. Hadn't used one of these guys before.. love the 2D6 attacks, First round of combat and he throws 11 for that turn's attacks

Now the Goblin horde attacks the Shieldbreakers holding the dwarf right. Without the benefit of crushing strength, and having charged through woods to disrupt their charge, the goblins don;t do too well.

Now the Dwarf horde looks to be in a dangerous position. Nick's Ax have eliminated a Dwarf Ironguard half regiment, exposing the flank of the Horde. It would of course be impolite not to take the offer of a charge into a flank.

Meanwhile that Goblin horde is pushed back

Looking a little messy here

The Krudger finally breaks the steel behemoth.. ker .. bang!!

And the magicy guy attacks the Dwarf king along with an Ax half regiment.

Finally the Organ gun has some luck and inflicts severe casualties on the Ax regiment that had attacked the Dwarf horde regiment in the flank. The casualties are enough, it fails its morale and is routed.

The Battle Driller beats up the other magicy guy ..

The battle is swinging in favour of the Dwarfs.

The Horde defeats its opponents

The right centre units defeat the regiment of Ax .. attacked front, side and rear (by the Battle Driller)

One fewer Ax regiment.. whollop

And the Horde defeats the regiment of Great Ax that had attacked it frontally.

On the Dwarf left the Ironguard are repelled by the half regiment of Ax..

But the king defeats the magicy guy..

This was one of those rip snorter games.. lots of fun pushing nice figures around the table. Nick wasn't able to use his strength as well as he'd liked, his deployment pinned several units for several turns. His decision to attack in the centre with only half his units was perhaps the telling one. Had he waited for all units to be ready he might have been more successful. However in a six turn game you don't have the luxury of too much time to develop a battle plan.

From my point of view, despite the attraction of the Berserker Brock riders, the Horde provided stability for the the Dwarf line. I might use that approach again.

About Me

Public admission time: it was back in the late '60s that I began 'gaming along with a great group of friends. I game a wide range of periods, but my all time favourite rules set is 'Volley and Bayonet' by Frank Chadwick. I am also a great fan of the Spearhead stable of rules, especially Great War Spearhead written by Shawn Taylor. Most recently I have become a convert to HotT (Hordes of the Things, the fantasy variant of DBA). I also play DBA and Armati, with a smattering of the GW rules.